Title: Deep Red
Author: OpheliacAngel
Pairing: Alice/Claire
Genres: Romance/Hurt/Comfort
Rating: Teen
Summary: She feels, she feels her way back.
A/N: Written for femslashficlets for prompt #032 hurt/comfort. Also a fill on my h/c_bingo card for the prompt 'loss of identity.' Set during Afterlife.
Alice watches the light rise and fall of Claire's chest, the dull red hair framing her hollowed out face in the moonlight, the way her hands twitch in her sleep, as if she's trying to grab something. She moves closer and the twitching subsides, a more relaxed look crossing Claire's features.
"I had to leave. You get that, don't you?"
There's no sound. If Alice strains she can hear the waves, but otherwise they're completely alone here. Her fingers find their way to Claire's hair, without thought or the prodding of Alice's mind, curling around the deep red strands. They're so dry that Alice believes they'll crumble to dust at any moment. Still, she feels, she feels her way back.
She hates the idea of justifying herself, not because she feels she doesn't need to. She does. She's responsible for what happened to Claire and the others. She's responsible for Claire not knowing who the hell she is. That's on her. All of it. But she has ways of helping Claire remember, and patience. They were never together before, but Claire buried her face in the crook of Alice's neck back then, buried her face in her hair and Alice held her, like they had been friends, sisters, lovers for years.
Fuck, she missed Claire.
"I don't know what happened, Claire. Something bad, to cause this. But they are never gonna take me away from you. Even if you can't remember, even if you never remember, I will never stop hunting but I will never leave you behind," she grits out, hands clenching at the thought of someone hurting Claire. Alice has no one left, nothing but this red hair and slender figure and familiar eyes that hold no familiarity in them. It burns in her, that Claire was taken away from her this way. It burns that Claire can't remember what she told Alice about the first time she saw her, fire raining down among them, Alice her savior.
'You came when I needed someone. And I've never needed someone before. That's just you.'
"That's just me," Alice smiles, smoothing a blanket over Claire. She doesn't stir, she's so still and quiet but Alice knows she's there. She may be lying dormant, out of her reach, but she is still there. Alice just has to reach down far enough.
Around her the day is breaking out. She almost doesn't want to leave, if she had the luxury she would stay here and spend all the time in the world getting Claire to remember her. They've barely gotten past the handcuff stage though, not to mention that she doesn't have the time she craves. She didn't then either.
But when this is all over, or at least the Umbrella Corporation has been completely eradicated, even if the world isn't back in order, she's going to spend every last day she has with one certain red-head. If Claire still wants her.
If not that, then there's always the afterlife.
FIN